


A Noticeable Shift

by Agf



Category: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Fix-It, Gen, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Sort Of, none of the character tags are the death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-11
Updated: 2018-05-11
Packaged: 2019-05-05 06:00:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14611050
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agf/pseuds/Agf
Summary: Infinity War Spoilers!The realisation that something waswrongcrept up on Peter over a day which was otherwise completely unremarkable.In which nobody invades Earth, but Peter still feels like he's missing something important about this suspicious calm.





	A Noticeable Shift

**Author's Note:**

> Oh man, I meant to write fluff.

The realisation that something was _wrong_ crept up on Peter over a day which was otherwise completely unremarkable.  
  
It started on the bus, on the way to school. He hadn’t slept well the night before – his patrol had been surprisingly busy, and while that was _so_ awesome, it also meant he’d stayed out later than his agreed curfew. May hadn’t been happy. At least, now that Ned was in the know, he didn’t mind it when Peter sat behind him on the bus and tried to nap on their way into school.  
  
Normally the rocking of the bus made it pretty easy to doze, but that morning Peter couldn’t settle down. They were crossing the bridge when his senses blared at him. Peter felt the hairs on his arms raise, and he spun around in his seat to locate the danger.  
  
There was nothing. Just clear blue skies over a familiar cityscape.  
  
“What’s up, had a nightmare?” Ned asked, leaning over the partition of their chairs.  
  
“I think something’s wrong,” Peter said, hastily activating his webshooters, hiding his hands between his legs and hunching over.  
  
“Shit, seriously?” Ned said, sitting up straight. “What?”  
  
“I don’t know, it’s not that detailed a feeling,” Peter whispered back. Around them, their classmates continued to chatter, undisturbed. They passed over the bridge, and moved out of the traffic. The alarm bells in Peter’s head quietened down.  
  
“What do you look so freaked out about?” MJ asked, raising her eyebrows at the both over the central aisle. Peter hadn’t even noticed she was there, and now he hastily crossed his arms, shoving his hands under his armpits.  
  
“Nothing,” Peter said, at the exact same time as Ned spat out – “spiders!”  
  
“Spiders?”  
  
“It was a nightmare. I was sleeping.” Peter kicked the back of Ned’s seat and tried for a smile. MJ seemed unconvinced, but she turned back to her book.  
  
“Seriously man?” Peter grumbled at the back of Ned’s head. “You’ve gotta get better at lying. Stop always using spiders as your excuse.”  
  
“It’s a common fear, no one likes spiders.”  
  
“Think of another fear.”  
  
“Like… the dark?”  
  
They spent the rest of the ride to school bickering back-and-forth, but the faint alarm bells at the back of Peter’s mind wouldn’t fade completely. Not even when he rang May and she assured him that she was fine. It took some cajoling, but she even did an online search for news, and couldn’t find anything about that section of Queens. No traffic accidents, no bomb scares, nothing that would have triggered his senses like that.  
  
“Maybe it was just a small-time mugging or something,” Ned offered across the desk at homeroom. “Something you wouldn’t have got there in time for.”  
  
Peter wasn’t convinced. “But I could feel it- I still kinda can.”  
  
“You’re probably just tired. You’ve been out every night, right? Spidey senses need a break too.”  
  
Across the room, MJ lifted her face from her book, and smirked at them both. She was way too far away to have conceivably heard any of their conversation, but Ned still shut up without another word from Peter.  
  
After school, Peter slipped away to his favourite alley, promising to call Ned if ‘any shit started to go down’, and put on the suit. Then he webbed up his backpack, found a rooftop, and asked Karen to run a scan of Twitter for any relevant news in Queens. Nothing, again. So Peter rang Tony.  
  
It was Pepper who answered, a note of concern in her voice. “Peter, are you alright?”  
  
“Hi Miss Potts. Yeah, I’m good. Where’s Mr Stark?”  
  
“He’s okay, he’s just a little busy at the moment,” Pepper replied. “Do you need me to send someone to you?”  
  
The fact she answered his question with reassurances just added to the weird feeling in the pit of Peter’s stomach. “No, I don’t need any help, I just… Is Mr Stark really okay?”  
  
Pepper paused for a beat, and Peter could hear the rustle of fabric over the mouthpiece of the phone, and then voices in the background. Pepper’s, and Tony’s too.  
  
“He’s worried about you. You’ll have to speak to him.”  
  
“You couldn’t have told him I was sleeping?”  
  
Then more rustling, and Tony’s voice against the receiver, “Hi kid.” He sounded exhausted, his voice gravelly and low. Something about it made Peter squirm uncomfortably, those alarm bells ringing again. He listened around him, but there was nothing happening. Some kids screaming on the street, but they were just playing soccer.  
  
“Hi Mr Stark. What’s going on?”  
  
“What makes you think something is?” Tony asked cautiously.  
  
“I’ve got this weird feeling today, and I can’t figure out what’s wrong. Plus… you sound real tired.”  
  
Tony laughed, the kind of humourless exhale that normally accompanied an eye roll. “It’s been a long few days.”  
  
“You’ve been on a mission?”  
  
“Yeah kid. Yeah, I’ve been busy. Sounds like things are sorted now though. You don’t need to worry about anything my end.”  
  
“… Alright,” Peter replied. The longer he stayed on the phone with Tony, the more convinced he became that he was hiding something. “I’m sorry.”  
  
“Don’t say that,” Tony snapped. Then, “shit, ignore me, kid. You’re doing a good job. I’ll speak to you soon. Take this back Pepper.”  
  
Pepper sounded tired too. “Hi Peter. Sorry about that. He won’t talk to me either, if that makes you feel any better. He really is okay though.”  
  
Peter nodded, then remembered that Pepper couldn’t see that and hurried to answer. “Yeah- yeah, don’t worry about it. I- uh, I’d better get back to patrolling.”  
  
“Of course. Don’t hesitate to ring if you need us. Bye, Peter.”  
  
The next hour or so passed quietly – one car theft to abort, the rest the usual fare of escorting lost kids and offering directions. It felt almost mundane, after all the stuff with the Vulture. Peter kind of wished for something big to happen again, just so he could stretch his wings a little. Or his webs. Whatever.  
  
He was sitting on top of the library, he liked to encourage people to stop by if he could, when Karen interrupted his thought process.  
  
‘Peter, the Avengers have issued a statement. Would you like me to read it to you?’  
  
Peter stood up, glancing around at the sky – there was still something bugging him about it. Why was it empty? “Yes please.”  
  
‘We are sad to announce today the passing of the First Avenger, Captain America. Steve Rogers was a great man, and an icon loved by many-‘  
  
“Karen, stop - what? Is this real?”  
  
‘I’m afraid so, Peter. Shall I continue?’  
  
Down on the street, Peter could see people pulling out their phones, and a few voices filtered up to him. _Captain America’s died! Cap’s dead – What, how?_  
  
Peter wouldn’t believe it, he couldn’t, but… Tony’s tired voice made sense now.  
  
“Please.”  
  
‘An icon loved by many. He was a hero until the last. We cannot overestimate how many of us owe him our lives, in one way or another.’  
  
“What happened?” Peter asked. His phone vibrated with a message from Ned, playing the familiar jaunty tune. He didn’t check it.  
  
‘Peter, some people are filming you from the ground. Shall I find you somewhere empty?’  
  
“No- no, thank you Karen. Can you get me a car? Can you ask… ask Happy to get me a car.” There were a few phones pointed up at him now, and Peter could already picture it playing on the news later. _Where were the other superheroes when Captain America died? Spiderman was sitting on a roof._  
  
His hands were shaking, but he couldn’t tell if he felt angry. His eyes felt hot and itchy under the mask.  
  
‘Happy Hogan is on his way.’  
  
“Tell him I’ll meet him down by the bridge. It’ll be faster,” Peter said, already swinging away. All the way, the same mantra of whispers followed him in snatches of conversation. _Captain America’s dead. How? How? He’s dead! How?_  
  
***  
  
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Peter demanded, bursting through the door to the Compound meeting room, where FRIDAY had informed him Tony was sitting.  
  
He was, and so were a lot of the other Avengers – Falcon, Thor, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, Vision, War Machine, Dr Banner. Peter was glad that he was wearing his suit – not so much to keep his identity secret, more so because he knew his eyes were swollen, and his voice was thick enough as it was.  
  
He wasn’t the only one who’d been crying.  
  
Tony looked like a mess. There were dark circles under his eyes and a gash from his temple to his ear. He was holding himself stiffly, and when he saw Peter, his eyes widened, and he looked almost ready to run.  
  
“You- Mr Stark…” Peter was about to ask what was wrong, but that was obvious. He caught himself in time, and just glanced between Tony’s face, and the rest of the room. He’d clearly interrupted something. Thor, Banner and Widow looked just as tired, and Rhodey had barely lifted his head since Peter walked in.

“I didn’t want to tell you,” Tony replied. He didn’t sound like himself. “I still don’t want to- You’re too young, kid. You shouldn’t know. Shouldn’t have to.”  
  
“I want to know what happened to Cap,” Peter replied. He planted his feet and looked around the room again. Widow nodded at him.  
  
“We were on a mission. Without Cap, we never would have finished it. That’s all you need to know.”  
  
“You said he was there,” Falcon said. Peter couldn’t remember his name. His hands were still shaking. “Spiderman. You said he was with you.”  
  
“I know what I said,” Tony snapped.  
  
“I was where? I’ve been at sch- I haven’t been anywhere.”  
  
“Tony,” Widow said quietly. “He came all the way.”  
  
“It’s too much for him,” Tony said, gesturing with an arm flung out wide.  
  
“He already rang,” Rhodey said, looking up from the table and levelling Peter with a look which made him feel like Rhodey saw straight through the suit. “Pepper said. He already knew something was wrong.”  
  
“Is this to do with the sky?” Peter asked, and everyone turned to him with equally confused looks. “I mean – It’s empty. Sorry, that doesn’t sound… I thought something was wrong, this morning, on the bus. I felt like there was something there, or happening, but I couldn’t see anything.”  
  
Everyone was silent. Then Wanda said, “he could feel it.” Outside of her mission clothes, she looked… smaller. Not so much older than Peter himself.  
  
“Just tell him Tony. He deserves to know, same as the rest of us.” That was the Falcon again. “Start again. Take it from the top.”  
  
Dr Banner pulled out a chair, and Peter sat down. He couldn’t even bring himself to be excited at meeting him, or Thor, for the first time. Tony looked angry, but he couldn’t hold the glare against Peter, and he eventually slumped forwards.  
  
“Natasha, Thor, Bruce, Rhodey, Steve and I… we were on a mission. It started about a few months ago. You were all involved too, but you won’t remember it.”  
  
“Explain,” Falcon again.  
  
“That event we were warned about, the big thing on the horizon, it was Thanos. He came to Earth to collect the Infinity Stones. They’d give him the power to do anything, once he had all six. He wanted to wipe out half the planet. He got them all.” Tony looked between Vision and Wanda, his hands were shaking.  
  
Natasha took over. “By the time he reached Earth, he already had two. There were two here. Stephen Strange’s time stone, and the mind stone.” She gestured at Vision. “He got those too.”  
  
“How?” That was Wanda, her voice tight.  
  
“You put up a good fight,” Rhodey supplied, “you almost beat him. He just turned back time so you didn’t get the chance.”  
  
“We were in Wakanda, with the Black Panther. There was a battle,” Dr Banner said, he was speaking directly to Vision. He looked apologetic. “Tony, Spiderman and Strange were off-planet. They didn’t manage to keep Thanos from getting the time stone-“  
  
“We were where?” Peter interrupted, his eyes wide. He looked back at Tony, but he wouldn’t meet his eye.  
  
“Titan. It’s Thanos’ home planet,” Banner replied. “You weren’t alone, you had some of the Guardians with you, but that’s a long story.”  
  
“What happened with Cap?” Falcon demanded. “Why don’t any of us remember all this?”  
  
“You died.”  
  
Rhodey’s shoulders were slumped so far forwards he almost folded over on himself. “A snap of Thanos’ fingers, once he had all the stones. You all died. Gone, like smoke, like dust.”  
  
Behind Peter, Tony’s breath caught in his throat.  
  
“But you remained behind,” Vision said. He didn’t sound afraid at learning of his own death. Peter didn’t know what to think, his own mind was reeling.  
  
“They turned back time,” he realised, speaking aloud. Widow’s lips twitched in an almost-smile, which Peter took as confirmation. “Switched the timeline. That’s what I felt, right? That’s how we’re back here – you used a time stone?”  
  
“Our mission. Between yesterday and today… it’s been months,” Natasha said. “We got it. The time stone. We fought Thanos’, with a little help, and we turned back the clock.”  
  
“Cap didn’t make it,” Rhodey said. “We needed a sacrifice, to get control of the gauntlet. For one of the stones.”  
  
“Someone we all loved,” Banner nodded. “There weren’t many of those left.”  
  
Tony glanced over at Peter again, and it seemed to sink in what everyone was saying, how they’d been off planet together when they lost. When Peter died.  
  
Tony hadn’t died. But he’d been there.  
  
“So Steve-“ there were tears in Falcon’s eyes again, and Thor rested a hand on his shoulder.  
  
“Yes,” Thor nodded. “Our dear friend, who we all loved as a brother. Steve Rogers, for half of the universe.”  
  
The room fell silent.  
  
Slowly, Peter crossed the space between him and Tony, and pulled him into his arms. He could feel Tony’s chest heaving, and he buried his face in Peter’s shoulder. The feeling of his arms on Peter’s back made those alarm bells sound again, but it was quieter this time – and besides, now Peter knew what that meant. What it meant that the feeling of a hug like this gave him the same sensation as an empty sky. Warnings from another life he didn’t live, when Tony hugged him like this.  
  
“We owe our lives to the Captain,” Thor said, somewhere underneath the rushing in Peter’s ears. “To honour him, we will live good ones of our own, now that we are able.”


End file.
